Truman Atomic Bombing Analysis

Japan during the 1940’s was a nation that prided itself on the concept of never surrendering. It was something that they took fierce and obsessive pride in. Their culture dictated that they are never to give up, even if they fought until every single man,woman, and child living in Japan was slaughtered, they would never surrender. This doctrine was one of the key deciding factors that influenced Truman in making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Several weeks before the Atomic bomb was dropped, The Untied States of Military issued a warning to the Japanese government. “It warned the Japanese to surrender immediately or face ‘prompt and utter destruction.” (Yes! Harry Truman’s Simple Decision) Unfortunately, a mere two weeks before the first atomic bomb dropped, the Japanese prime minister publically dismissed the warning and refused to surrender. Even after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government refused to stand down. Even though they had suffered over 225,000 civilian casualties in the attack, the Japanese military refused to surrender. It took until the second bombing of Nagasaki to finally force the Japanese to surrender on American

The only way Japan was going to surrender was when all Japanese soldiers and people were killed. They had a I’m going to do die for country mentality, that everyone in Japan was strongly believing. By bombing Japan, it made them and Russia realize the power the U.S. had in the atomic bombs. A view days after the bombing Japan’s Emperor Hirohito surrendered. The surrender of Japan aided to the end of war.

Many debates have been provoked based on President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The debate is not solely based on the bomb being dropped, but more on the actual necessity and intention of the bomb being dropped.

That is not how things turned out, instead, it just began the Cold War. What ended World War II was Germany surrendering after Hitler had killed himself, not the bombing and invasion of the Japanese, even though after the invasion by the Soviet Union they did surrender. “Secretary of State James Byrnes, however, wanted to drop the bomb without any warning to shock Japan into surrendering.” (Document I) We did give warning to Japan about the attack. The Potsdam conference, which led to the Potsdam declaration stated that Japan surrender from the war immediately or consequences will be made by America. After reading this declaration, Japan requested only that the Emperor remain on his throne and Sovereign of Japan. The United States denied this request, and Japan ignored the declaration. And, Through using the atomic bomb, horror swept not over just Japan, but the entire world. “The military advantages and the saving of American lives achieved by the sudden use of atomic bombs against Japan may be outweighed by the ensuing loss of confidence and by a wave of horror and repulsion sweeping over the rest of the world…” (Document C) This causes the Japanese people to become victims, for their tragedy caused every nation to be frightened of America's advanced technology and power. Nations were scared of getting dragged into World War II already, now they have another

The Pacific War was a series of bloody battles, unlike any other in American history, that was fought in many obscure areas between Japan and The United States of America. It dated from 1941 to 1945. The theatre of war in the Pacific was significantly different compared to any battle in Europe during World War II. If given the choice, any soldier would prefer to battle in Europe, a less treacherous and foreign land, compared to the islands and unfamiliarity in the Pacific. Japanese territory consisted of jungles, caves, and volcanic mountains that were exceedingly difficult to fight on.

Many Japanese soldiers were suffering and had little resources left, they were struggling to stay alive (Document D). The atomic bombs were able to stop the fighting and help the soldiers go home to their families safely. On the American side, soldiers had a plan of invading Japan but it would have been hard because of low resources, it was too expensive, and the Japanese home islands were heavily guarded (Document E). The bombs clearly were the right way to go. Many believe that Japan would have surrendered anyway due to sea blockade (Document K). That could have been true but due to the aforementioned evidence Japan would have continued fighting leading to more casualties on both sides than the amount of casualties caused by the bombs. Many people supported the nuclear violence, especially American soldiers who were glad they were going to live and did not have to invade Japan after all (Document H). Due to the personal accounts of civilians and soldiers it can be concluded that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were a military necessity because they saved the lives of Japanese and American

The fact that not proper information was given to Japan to make the decision whether to surrender or not made people think

On August 6th 1945, the United States, led by Harry Truman, decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, forever changing warfare. This paper will be dedicated to why Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb on Japan and the effects that this decision had on humanity afterward.

As the war continued and violence escalated, bombings caused enormous destruction and high death tolls, leading inevitably to the use of the atomic bombs. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented a culmination in the destructiveness of bombings, not a significant deviation from previous bombing practices. The alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb were likely to have caused equal suffering for the Japanese people. The use of the atomic bomb was no less moral than these horrific wartime practices. Harry Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan was justified by Japan’s refusal to immediately surrender. Harry Truman gave the Japanese time to surrender in order to preserve the existence of their people. They did not comply and as a result endured the consequences. (Walker) Yet an alternate perspective states that it was quite unnecessary to drop the Atomic Bombs in that Japan was practically an already defeated opponent. If a conditional surrender were to be issued by the United States to Japan in

They are in three camps: traditionalist, revisionist, and middle ground historians. In short term, to them the atomic bombs against Japan was justifiable on military grounds; this was to prevent the invasion of the Japanese. Some came to the conclusion that the atomic bombs not pursued by the Truman administration, they chose not to pursued alternatives to ending the war. There’s other interpretation that stated the Truman invasion not have been necessary and the atomic bomb did not save hundreds of thousands of millions of lives, and that the atomic bomb was not a military

​Japans assault on Pearl Harbor was what pushed the United Staes to end up in WWII. After numerous fights and losses against the Japanese, Truman knew the time had come to make a move to end this war. Variables that legitimize the dropping of the nuclear bombs are to anticipate any longer setbacks, reason impact on the soviet union, local legislative issues, and the come up short of the Potsdam Declaration. Contentions made against utilizing the bombs are the setbacks of guiltless lives, and Japans armed force at the purpose of falling. Truman 's choice to drop the bombs was a helpful decision. The utilizing of the nuclear bombs likewise had its post-war clashes; radiation in Japan, and struggle between United States and Soviet Union.

The Japanese saw this as an incredible insult to their ruler, and therefore refused surrender (Lawton). The only reason why America could follow through with the term of “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction” (“Potsdam Declaration”) was because it had made the terms of the Potsdam Declaration completely disgraceful and unacceptable for Japan. Clive A. Lawton argues “Many Japanese politicians would only agree to surrender if Emperor Hirohito remained on the throne”. Had the U.S. revised its treaty terms in order to keep Hirohito in power and leave at least some of the Japanese military intact, Japan would have likely surrendered quicker and the bombs would not be needed.

Truman stated that the use of the atomic bomb was in response to Japan attack on Pearl Harbor and for disobeying international laws of warfare by mistreating American P.O.W’s. Ultimately, Truman wanted to end the agony of this war and save American and Japanese

Lastly, The atomic bombs were not necessary because there were other options to make Japan surrender. Admiral William Leahy believed that an economic blockade and conventional bombing would make Japan surrender. There were other options to make Japan surrender, but not many were taken on consideration because of Truman. There were other options to make Japan surrender but Truman saw to use the atomic bomb to save American lives.

The Soviet declaration of war on Japan exerted even more pressure on Japan, triggering even the emperor to urge the government to just accept the Potsdam Declaration and surrender. Its involvement meant that Japan might be fighting a two-front war as the Soviets had already settled in Japanese-held Manchuria, and had orders to attack Japan 's northern and southern isles. This influenced Japan 's unconditional surrender as no strategy remained and it may not hope for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to mediate for an appropriate peace. On August 15, Japan surrendered unconditionally based on all the Potsdam terms.